Sisters compete in hockey for different countries,
Sisters split on U.S. and Korean teams
Greg and Robin Brandt got used to shuttling back and forth, grew accustomed to the miles of highway between their daughters’ hockey games.
So going between Hannah’s and Marissa’s games won’t be anything new. That they’ll do it in Pyeongchang, where their daughters will play for two different countries, well, that’s a pleasant change of pace.
With Hannah as a forward on the U.S. team and Marissa as a defender on the Korean team, the Brandts will be plenty busy when the women’s hockey tournament starts Saturday.
“To have both girls be able to go to the Olympics at the same time, it’s pretty amazing,” Robin said. “We couldn’t be happier for both of them, especially for Marissa, because that was icing on the cake for her to get to do this.”
That the sisters will compete for different countries is an unexpected bonus for a family that built its life around hockey but never quite dreamed of this.
Greg and Robin adopted Marissa in May 1993, when she was more than four months old. After struggling with infertility for years, Robin found out she was pregnant weeks before Marissa arrived in Minnesota but didn’t tell the adoption agency.
“You bond with that photo,” Robin said, “and we’d seen her, so we couldn’t not have her come.”
Hannah came in November, the Brandts’ second daughter to arrive within six months. From the start, their parents tried to have the girls do the same things. They signed them up for figure skating, but Hannah quickly moved on to hockey. Marissa did both for a while until her parents granted her request to quit figure skating so she could play hockey with her sister.
“So many people told us you should never have them on the same team because they’ll be too competitive,” Greg said, “and all they were was happy for each other.”
Adds Hannah, “We were pretty much attached at the hip. We did everything together.”
That included Korean school on Saturday mornings from fall to spring and Korean camp in the fall. Greg and Robin thought it important for Marissa to experience the culture.
Hannah loved it, they all say. Marissa wanted to quit.
“I think when I was younger, I really shied away from being Korean,” Marissa said. “I really didn’t want to pull out that side of me. I wanted to be like everybody else. I wanted to look like my sister.”
Choosing a college brought a crossroads for the sisters. At 11 months older, Marissa would go first. She chose Division III Gustavus Adolphus College. A year later, Hannah headed to Minnesota. That meant lots of driving for Greg and Robin. They’d try to stick together for games, so they would go to the first two periods of the earlier game and then drive to catch the last two periods of the other game.
It allowed them to enjoy a pretty magical season with their two daughters. In 2012-13, Marissa’s sophomore season, Gustavus went 27-1-1 and didn’t lose until the Division III semifinals.
Hannah’s Minnesota team went 41-0 in her freshman season that year, winning a national title. The next season, Hannah was one of the final cuts for the U.S. team for the Sochi Olympics.
“She could have taken it one of two ways, and she chose to work hard and come back even better,” Marissa said.
Parallel journeys
While Hannah was working harder, Marissa thought her hockey days were done. She graduated in 2015 and said she was ready for the next chapter in her life.
But Rebecca Baker, a coach with the South Korean team, knew through her husband Mitch’s work with the Minnesota team that Hannah had an adopted sister. When they found out that she was South Korean, they invited her for a tryout.
“It was kind of a no-brainer to come here,” Marissa said.
After that initial tryout, Marissa got her dual citizenship. She’d long forgotten what she’d learned in Korean camp, but she’s one of six players from the United States or Canada and that helped ease the transition to a culture she didn’t know.
She hadn’t been back since she was adopted.
“Without them, it would have been significantly harder for me to adapt and adjust to the culture here and kind of find my footing right away,” Marissa said.
Role models
The next stop in that journey is the Olympics. As expected, Hannah was named to the U.S. team in January.
Marissa was already assured of her spot by then, allowing Greg and Robin to begin preparing to go to Pyeongchang. (The International Olympic Committee announced in late January that it approved a unified Korean team, adding 12 North Korean players to the roster.)
Marissa is eager to share Korean culture with her family. Fully accepting where she came from, Marissa now wears her Korean birth name — Park Yoon Jung — on her jersey in hopes of finding her birth mother.
“It was kind of just something for her as well, maybe she’d be watching,” Marissa said. “And even if she didn’t, it was just kind of my way of hopefully making her proud in a weird way, even if she doesn’t know.”
Each game, the sisters send a text message to each other saying basically the same three things. Good luck. Score for me. I love you.
It’s a little reminder that they’re thinking of each other. It’s unlikely they will face each other, making it a little easier on their parents.
For Greg and Robin’s part, there will be little shuttling. With their daughters achieving their Olympic dream, they’ll get to see it all.
“They don’t play the same day,” Greg says. “That’ll be really nice.”